Ready to Move to Mars?

It seems that the move to the planet Mars is well on its way to advancing, and many are ready to make the move. As organizations prepare for hopefully creating a successful landing on the red planet, many of their actions are making headway to the possibility of one day living on Mars. Mars One, SpaceX and NASA are all involving the public in the opportunity, through different types of interactions, but overall no matter which organization is pulling for human life on Mars, it may soon be an opportunity for all humans on Earth. However, as each one of these organizations seem to be in competition, it is now a race to the finish line.

Where There Are Three, Only One Might Succeed

Three major organizations currently have plans for taking humans to Mars and creating colonies. Before many citizens thought NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) would be the first organization to successfully land humans on the red planet. However, now it seems that each organization is making plans to be the first to colonize Mars. As there are many organizations around the world that could equally be the first to meet this goal, and one might come up and surprise everyone, Mars One, SpaceX, and NASA are making the mission to Mars a priority. Does this mean that humans should be getting ready to move to Mars? How far off is the likeliness that one of these organizations is able to complete the mission?

Mars One

Mars One first introduced their idea to establish a human settlement on the planet when they offered to host a group of selected humans in a colony, in order to test the conditions that humans would face on Mars. Many were willing to take on the challenge but only a certain amount of willing participants could actually be involved. As this showed just how many humans would be interested in living on a different planet, it seemed that Mars One may actually have a good start.

Fox 5 in Reno spoke with a woman who is a semi-finalist in the selection by the organization to determine who might be part of the mission. Kay Radzik Warren is one of 100 semi-finalists out of the 202,586 people that applied to be part of the mission. She told Fox 5 that she has always loved all things outer space and that she believes that humans were always suppose to be space-baring species.

Kay could be one of 24 people that the organization plans to train and send to the red planet in groups of four, 26 months apart. Mars One has been gearing up, exploring new technologies and creating a timeline for their mission that will supposedly allow for human life on other planets, starting with Earth’s red-headed neighbor.

SpaceX

SpaceX, whose CEO Elon Musk has brought the world great technical innovations from Tesla, plans to take humans to mars in 10 years. Though NASA insulted Mars One by stating that they could never get to Mars without the help of NASA and the government funding (though the comment was not direct but was certainly implied), Musk and SpaceX have business on their side. Musk teamed up with partners like Google and Fidelity in order to raise $1 billion dollars for continuation of many of his technological innovations.

He has not announced specific plans for sending humans to other planets, but the company said in an interview earlier this year that they would be announcing specific plans at the end of 2015. Musk and SpaceX have already been successful in creating “spaceships” that have made trips into space. One such example is the SpaceX Dragon Freighter that has taken supplies up to the International Space Station (ISS) that NASA has, currently in orbit.

NASA

Of course NASA would be working hard on sending humans to other planets, but with the most recent cut in their funding, they may now be further away from unfolding their plans. NASA has made comments on missions to Mars, especially as it concerns other organizations who are working on beating out the competition. The administration has long-time had a plan for how they would send humans to the red planet and with their recent successful trips of Mars Rover, which collects data from the planet, it seems that they would be getting even closure to making the first mission.

NASA has even presented the “Journey to Mars Challenge” where three creative winners will be able to win monetary awards in exchange for helping the administration work on its planned colonization of the red planet. NASA is looking for ways that the astronauts who travel to Mars can stay safe while on the planet. They are looking for ideas that are “technically achievable, economically sustainable, and minimize reliance on support from Earth.” Those with the three best ideas will win $5000 each.

Who Will Win?

All three organizations are working to ready humans for a move to the planet Mars. Only one organization will be the first to complete a successful mission. Though Elon Musk wants to complete the mission through SpaceX within the next ten years, that timeline may prove to be too soon. Then again, as Musk has already created various technological innovations, throughout the years, he may just have the drive to take humans on their next giant leap.

NASA has funding from the government to resume their mission, and since Ted Cruz seems to have taken up problem with NASA spending more time exploring the ways of Earth and not exploring the ways to farther travel into space, it may be done sooner rather than later. However, as sources state, NASA is going to need much more than the small of amount of funding provided by the government, if they want to make a successful trip to colonize any other planet.

The Netherlands non-profit organization could be successful, as they continue to move closer to their goals, but they currently still lack enough funding for all of the plans that they have. Though their invitation to humans for testing conditions that may be faced on the red planet brought about large response, they have still not chosen the finalists for the mission.

All of the planning and interaction with the public, show that humans are far beyond ready to explore other planets. How long will it be before it is possible? Three are currently working on getting results, and at this point it is just a race to the finish line.